$1.10 NL HE MTT: AJo in MP

[mariussica88]

Game

Hold'em

Game Format

No Limit

Table Format

MTT

Buy-in

1.10

Game Options

1. Bounty

Currency

$

This is a $1.10 bounty tournament, we have been playing from some time but the SB has only 6 hands played, and played 4 of them. So not relevant info on him.

Pre-flop I decided if I want to play this hand I need to 3-bet/fold against the UTG raiser, luckily he did not 4-bet. On the flop SB donk bets, maybe to throw us (me and UTG from this hand) . What do you guys do in this situation?

The bounty on the BB is minimal $0.50

*I will post the rest of this hand later I'm really curios what would you guys do? And also what range do you guys think SB has here?

pokerstars, $0.98 + $0.12 - Hold'em No Limit - 90/180 (27 ante) - 7 players


UTG: 19,834 (110 bb)
MP (Hero): 18,951 (105 bb)
MP+1: 8,783 (49 bb)
CO: 11,631 (65 bb)
BU: 12,262 (68 bb)
SB: 13,128 (73 bb)
BB: 1,336 (7 bb)

Pre-Flop: (459) Hero is MP with J♦ A♣
UTG raises to 396, Hero 3-bets to 1,287, 3 players fold, SB calls 1,197, BB 4-bets to 1,309 (all-in), UTG calls 913, Hero calls 22, SB calls 22

Flop: (5,425) J♠ 7♥ 9♠ (4 players, 1 all-in)
SB bets 5,220, UTG folds, Hero ?

 

[fundiver199]

Preflop
I think, both calling and 3-betting is fine here.

Flop
He could obviously have you beat, but the SPR is less than 3, and he could also be on some kind of draw or even a worse top pair, that he wants to "protect". There is also some indication, SB is a fish. Cold calling a 3-bet from SB is not a very good strategy, and he has been involved in 5 out of 7 hands including this. So I would definitely not fold here. And since SB already has half his chips in the pot, there is no point in just calling either. He is already pot committed, so I would just get it in and be done. Yes its a lot to put in 73BB with just TPTK on a J high board, but spots like this are common in low buyin PKOs, and you just need to buckly up and ride the variance train.

 

[Sopt]

It's a tricky spot to be in, as there was a lot of action already happening pre-flop and you basically have no idea what SB could have with so little info you have about them.

Personally I do not like 3-betting AJo in early to mid positions as you are unnecessarily making the pot bigger than you'd comfortably be playing post flop with. I understand the idea of pushing UTG player away, but you are leaving way too much people behind you to still jump in, push over you ect. Especially on micro stakes MTTs I tend to call over 3-bet, even with better hands like AKo and such.
I understand that with calling you are also leaving yourself open to someone 3-betting behind you, but you can either decide to call or fold there too. And I wouldn't pay much mind to just folding to lets say button pushing it to 2k chips there.

Looking strictly at how this hand went, I'd recon there would be no difference, no matter what you did as BB went all in anyways.

Post flop we then are in this tricky position. SB could have anything. He could be a fish, just playing most of the hands. He could have been lucky getting crazy hands 10 times in a row. He could be a fish or a pro and hit 2 pair with J9. He could have a straight already with 10 8, he could have flush draw. He could have worse top pair and he could even have nothing, just trying to push you out of the pot, banking he has better hand than all in guy.
Personally I would fold on that board, even with top pair top kicker, just too many draws for my taste and you are no where near to being too invested in pot already. It's not worth losing most of the chips to overvalue your top pair.

So again I'd fold and reconsider my pre-flop play. Do I really want to play that range in that spot the way you did? I personally wouldn't.

Another tip to micro stakes, that I tend to be noticing more and more lately. You get far by over-folding not by over-playing.

 

[eetenor]

This is a $1.10 bounty tournament, we have been playing from some time but the SB has only 6 hands played, and played 4 of them. So not relevant info on him.

Pre-flop I decided if I want to play this hand I need to 3-bet/fold against the UTG raiser, luckily he did not 4-bet. On the flop SB donk bets, maybe to throw us (me and UTG from this hand) . What do you guys do in this situation?

The bounty on the BB is minimal $0.50

*I will post the rest of this hand later I'm really curios what would you guys do? And also what range do you guys think SB has here?

PokerStars, $0.98 + $0.12 - Hold'em No Limit - 90/180 (27 ante) - 7 players


UTG: 19,834 (110 bb)
MP (Hero): 18,951 (105 bb)
MP+1: 8,783 (49 bb)
CO: 11,631 (65 bb)
BU: 12,262 (68 bb)
SB: 13,128 (73 bb)
BB: 1,336 (7 bb)

Pre-Flop: (459) Hero is MP with J♦ A♣
UTG raises to 396, Hero 3-bets to 1,287, 3 players fold, SB calls 1,197, BB 4-bets to 1,309 (all-in), UTG calls 913, Hero calls 22, SB calls 22

Flop: (5,425) J♠ 7♥ 9♠ (4 players, 1 all-in)
SB bets 5,220, UTG folds, Hero ?

100BB AJ off is not a 3 bet vs UTG from your position and even more so when the BB is bounty available- Vs a tight player a fold is fine
-we could call if we thought the rest of the table was passive and would not squeeze- if we did raise we could go smaller especially if it is a raise to fold play and it also allows the BB to reopen the action if they shove. We want to be thinking about turning our AJ into a squeeze play vs UTG if they flat BB shove.

I am confused by the numbers you say BB had 1336 but then shoves 1309 was the big blind only 25?

 

[mariussica88]

I am confused by the numbers you say BB had 1336 but then shoves 1309 was the big blind only 25?

1336 is BB stack before the ante…1336-27= 1309


Then he puts the BB and completes to 1309


I had to calculate because you made me think that the CC hand converter made a mistake

 

[Poker Orifice]

As played, you have to gii there.
BUT.. I too wouldn't have 3Bet pre there in this particular spot. (fold > flat)

 

[300HPGOD]

You asked about the SB in your post but to me really the crux of this hand is the pre flop decision. I know this is a $1.10 and stuff is possible but this is by no means an automatic continue/involvement in the hand with AJ off UTG+1. If UTG stats are anything decent to tight like vpip <25%, raise <20% I lean towards just folding this. I think we could call in that spot if the rest of the table is not aggressive but we do have a 7 BB stack in the BB that if we did call and they jammed then it would be re-opened which we dont want if we are just flatting to begin with so I dont like the 3 bet to be sure unless villain is loose/passive. This is also a spot to me where I feel like it makes a large difference to have AJ off vs AJ suited. Therefore I think this spot is more of a call or fold spot based on our hand strength. There was a hand in the forum the other day where I went on about how QQ UTG+1 is a 3 bet but there are large differences between QQ and AJ of course. If villain is opening any sort of semi-tight UTG range how many hands are we ahead of here? KQ and KQ suited and the A10s but not much else. Villain would have to be loose here for your play to make sense imo.

Flop: SB is wide based on (I know only 6 hands) that they have played most of their hands dealt to them so I think they could have good hands here based on the board like sets and straights that really shatter yours and they could be behind you as well. I am not sure the sets and straights lead here knowing there is a very good chance someone bets behind them but they could based on the board being super wet. I agree with others that have said that its pointless to call here, this is a jam or fold spot. The problem I have with this is that on face value to me this is too much to get in here and too big of a risk of chips but if we are going to 4x 3 bet this hand pre and then get a bunch of calls and then get a flop where we TPTK it in a bounty where we have the villain covered we are going to look to fold now since they lead into us? I dont know, have a little bit of a hard time answering it cause I just would not 3 bet it here but I think in game I would fold even if I put myself in this spot (not saying folding is right, Im saying that is what I know I would do in game). Im folding here and putting some notes on SB on what they did pre off this stack from the SB, what they did flop, etc. so if I see this again I can be more confident next time. I dont think its bad to call here though.

The above is a roundabout way of saying I dont know what the hell to do on the flop, lol, other than dont just call.

 

[fundiver199]

I looked at the preflop spot in GTO Wizard, and the program is mainly folding AJo but also both calling and 3-betting a small percentage of the time. However this is ignoring ICM and bounties and assuming everyone is 100BB deep. Here we have a very short stacked player in BB, and the chance of winning his bounty create a larger incentive to get involved. But we want to get involved in a way, where we allow him to get involved as well. So after thinking it over again, I have to agree with the majority, who dislike this 3-bet. The play here has to be to just call pre and hope, this will get BB involved.

 

[mariussica88]

PokerStars, $0.98 + $0.12 - Hold'em No Limit - 90/180 (27 ante) - 7 players
Replay this hand on CardsChat

UTG: 19,834 (110 bb)
MP (Hero): 18,951 (105 bb)
MP+1: 8,783 (49 bb)
CO: 11,631 (65 bb)
BU: 12,262 (68 bb)
SB: 13,128 (73 bb)
BB: 1,336 (7 bb)

Pre-Flop: (459) Hero is MP with J♦ A♣
UTG raises to 396, Hero 3-bets to 1,287, 3 players fold, SB calls 1,197, BB 4-bets to 1,309 (all-in), UTG calls 913, Hero calls 22, SB calls 22

Flop: (5,425) J♠ 7♥ 9♠ (4 players, 1 all-in)
SB bets 5,220, UTG folds, Hero raises to 15,850, SB calls 6,572 (all-in)

Turn: (29,009) 3♠ (3 players, 2 all-in)

River: (29,009) 2♦ (3 players, 2 all-in)

Total pot: 29,009

Showdown:
MP (Hero) shows J♦ A♣ (a pair of Jacks)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 20%, Flop: 67%, Turn: 81%, River: 100%)

SB shows 7♣ K♣ (a pair of Sevens)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 37%, Flop: 20%, Turn: 12%, River: 0%)

BB shows Q♥ A♦ (high card, Ace)
(Equity - Pre-Flop: 43%, Flop: 13%, Turn: 7%, River: 0%)

MP (Hero) wins 29,009


Here is the full hand guys, sorry for the last update. I agree with you guys that I should have folded AJo pre. Here I guess I was lucky that no one raise after me. (BB raise is irrelevant since he put 22 chips more)

 

[fundiver199]

This is why, we simply cant fold something as strong as TPTK, just because SB decides to lead out on the flop. This is exactly the kind of hand, he will show up with a lot of the time

 

[dallam]

I'm not fully agree what was mentioned above, I like the outplay as well, and glad it earned you relevant chips and a bounty as well.

First of all this table is really complex.


UTG and you are above 100bbs, the rest 4 in 75-50, and one significant small with 7bbs. So even tho you two are leading this table, others having healthy stacks as well.
Once UTG open - and it's really important - the smallest and dying stack is in the position BB (in possible push situation + 1.1$ MTT! so even bigger chance) Also there are only 7 players at this table. So I can imagine with that huge stack a pretty wide range, huge number of suited hands landed in this open, Ax ones, every pocket. So unless you not seen this person really tight, I could put here very random cards in the hand.

While you're making your 3-bet here from UTG+1 against the other monster stack, your hands will be so much narrowed. Of course it's just an AJo not even suited, but you have the stack to play, and this is a valid combination to try the 3-bet fold, and maybe going for that bounty. The sizing is pretty much on point. And all those 50-75bb stacks are struggleing to 4-bet this, unless they are dominating you. So with this step you getting really good feedback as well where you are standing at the party, also you can have 3 or 4 cards to decide where to go with this hand by making the 3-bet here and now. So at this particular situation, according the table, stack sizes and positions I do see sense to reraise this, and this is just a brave choice, and once again the sizing is also selling this well!

Postflop agressive SB goes pot-bet all-in. This is just a very opened flop, straight & flush possibility, but easily a weaker Jx found the button now and pressing it. Sets may would trap this, and not go crazy and loosing a value, so this very active player puts the whole in. Luckily UTG fold, cause if this person would make a go, we would be in a very uncomfortable situation to playing stack to stack and not having a flush-blocker. So yeah, from now on it's an easy call, and villain is an absolute fish so that bounty is ours, although we missed BB's.